January 2, 2023 THE HOPEFULLY NOT SO BORING ADVENTURES OF ELDER WILLIAMSON CHAPTER XI

suppp.. okkk to start the week out, i bought some shirts and a backpack (for christmas) the shirts are super cool, one of them is phineas and ferb, and the backpack is spiderman, sooo i definitely look like a 5 year old when i wear them together (with crocs and a hat too) buttt it's a vibe ig.. we started teaching some rich guy who has his own school and stuff, which is weird to find rich people that want the lessons here, but the poverty gap is enormous.. annnd then on tuesday we went on an "eternal walk" trying to find some old contact that we've never met before.. we seriously just walked up a mountain for an hour or something, talked to some people up there about trying to find this guy, only to find out he doesn't even live on that mountain.. buttt at least we never have to go up there again.. it was a pretty productive day after that tho, we met a ton of new people.. we're going so far that it's not even in our area anymore, buttt ig we have permission? becuase it's still in our wArd boundary?.. at some point i got attacked by a gang of kids, who think it's just the funniest thing to pretent to beat me up (they do it to my comp too, but he doesn't like kids, so he just says stuff like "no don't punch people, that's mean") buttt i like playing with the kids, there are a lot of times in lessons when my comp is talking to the grown ups (borrrrring) and i'll just go play volleyball with the kids there, or they'll show me how well they're doing in their game on their ipad or something (sliggghtly more fun than sitting there trying not to fall asleep while some old lady explains why all of her knee surgeries make it so she can't go to church).. there's this one kid (the leader of the gang of kids) who is probably 3 or 4, he always has a binki, and he always finds us somehow, and comes to fake punch me or whatever.. but it always makes the days better, i got a little toy gun at one of the colmados, and gave it to him, and now he always asks for whatever i'm carrying at the time (usually gatorade or pear nectar (idek what it is exactly, buttt it's like pear juice but with all the pulp and stuff in it? idk, but elder macdonald showed me it, and it's super good) sooo he gets a lot of free stuff.. i think i'm finally running out of stuff to talk about tho, at the end of this week we'll get "transfer news" and then next wednesday my first transfer will be over.. suuuuper weird, buttt we'll see what else happens this week ig.. we did some exchanges too, that was fun.. i stayed in my area and elder palmer came with me, so i got to "lead the area" for onnne little day, that wasn't even full, because we had to be home early because of the new year and the people are crazy here.. it was super cool teaching with him tho, and it's always fun to see how other elders teach.. one of the lessons.. ummm.. failed successfully.. it was with our friend woscar, someone who has been progressing really well (like aCtually reading the book of mormon, which sadly is a miracle here, and he always asks really good questions and you can tell he really wants to learn) he just hasn't been to church yet.. wellll we got into his house, and we get past all the small talk and that stuff, and then elder palmer says something like (ok, take it away).. annnd then it hits me that i haven't looked at which lesson we were giving (i had made the schedule the morning of, but my comp added some things, so i didn't know what we were teaching.. sooo anyways we're sitting there, and i think for a second, and i'm not gonna pull out the phone and look at what was planned (which was the word of wisdom btw) so i just dove right into the 3rd lesson.. annnd for those of you who don't know what that is, it's "the gospel of jesus christ" which means it talks about faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end.. sooo we're just going with it, and it turned out to be an actually fiRe lesson, and elder palmer even challenged him to set a baptismal date!! which was the first ever time i've seen that since i've been here! sooo that was siCkkk!!.. new years eve was crazy, we had to be home by 7:30 again, and it was just a lOttt of noise.. "dominican republic: the loudest place on earth".. it definitely sounded like we were getting bombed last night, idk whAt was making those sounds buttt they were probably more of those can-nons, annnd a lot of drunk people.. that's pretty much all for this week tho, we had transfer news, buttt turns out nothing changed besides that elder palmer and elder macdonald swapped positions.. sooo it's literally the same.. buttt love you all, have a good week! alma 62:51 Yea, they did remember how great things the Lord had done for them, that he had delivered them from death, and from bonds, and from prisons, and from all manner of afflictions, and he had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies. And they did pray unto the Lord their God continually, insomuch that the Lord did bless them, according to his word, so that they did wax strong and prosper in the land.